Philip Rivers was not down, not bowing his head. He accepted his plight and vowed to move on.

But he was ticked off. At himself.

“I want to do all I can on every play to help us win,” Rivers said. “I fell short on a few today.”

The Chargers defense did not allow a touchdown in Sunday's 11-10 loss to the Steelers. It also could be argued that neither did it make stops when it had to do so.

But the blame for this loss fell on the offense and its leader.

In a game on a sloppy field, in the cold, Rivers had statistically his worst game since Nov. 11, 2007, a span of 20 games. He did not throw a touchdown pass for the first time in 17 games and finished with a passer rating of 43.6.

He entered the game the top-rated passer in the AFC, second in the NFL, a tenth of a point behind Kurt Warner.

But in the Chargers' past three losses, his mostly fantastic statistics have been overshadowed by costly turnovers, as Rivers cost his team a chance at victory by committing turnovers that prevented scores and/or led to opponents' points in losses against Buffalo, New Orleans and Pittsburgh.

Sure, plenty of other players have underperformed. And, yes, it might be ludicrous to pin losses on someone playing at such a high level.

But he's made too many crucial mistakes.

“From an individual perspective, I'm not struggling,” Rivers said. “I've had some errors that have turned out to be costly.”

Sunday was particularly galling to Rivers, because all he had to do was manage the game, and the Chargers would have won.

"This one hurts," he said. "I'm more sick about this one than any one this year, individually – because of where it came in the season, because how big it would have been for our team, because of the silly throw, the fumble in the end zone.

"It was a game you didn't have to play really good and you could have won – just don't mess it up, and I messed it up."

About to make a score that would have given the Chargers at least an eight-point lead and perhaps put them up by 12, with the Steelers reeling, the Heinz Field crowd growing hostile toward its team, Rivers threw a ball intended for Vincent Jackson in the corner of the end zone woefully short and right to James Harrison at the 10.

"A play like that hurts me individually, more than the one in Buffalo, just because that guy (Kawika Mitchell) made a really good play," said Rivers, who had never thrown an interception in the red zone before doing so in Buffalo. "I tried to get one in there and he made a play. This is giving somebody something. (Harrison) is an awesome player, but I gave it to him. It had nothing to do with them and everything to do with me making a terrible throw.